How do you do it?

[greyblob]

Every MC become @greyblob. We call it blobbification

its the final stage.

Now, I've seen some people with hundreds of books on their reading lists. For me, 5 books already feels like a LOT, so I don't understand how some people can do 20 or more. You'd have to remember characters, details about the world, abilities, and plot points. How can anyone follow so many stories at the same time?

you remember key details. thats what filters a good novel from a bad one. sometimes i read a novel only to realize on chapter 20 that i've read this before already.

 

[RainyLiquid]

Just use your eyes to read them all. Is easy.

 

[3guanoff]

Now, I've seen some people with hundreds of books on their reading lists. For me, 5 books already feels like a LOT, so I don't understand how some people can do 20 or more. You'd have to remember characters, details about the world, abilities, and plot points. How can anyone follow so many stories at the same time?

I have always had a good memory for stories. Growing up in a difficult environment, there were many different "stories" one had to keep straight. Mix them up? Earn a beating.

I will remember the gist of a story decades after reading it. Thus, to differentiate "proper" literature and popular fiction I need only read a book twice. Should I learn something new or be surprised a second time, it can be considered literature.
There are very few books I have read more than twice, and those I consider gems.

I do not use the site's reading list but a folder with simple txt files. They includes all books I've ever read, am reading, and, for all read after 2016, when I read them.
Can I recite their plot just by reading the title? For about one fifth of those books that is indeed the case.
As for the other four fifths, for half of them I can recall the complete plot by reading their summary. For the other two fifths, for all but a few of those, I would need to re-read a few chapters and that would be enough for me to remember the gist of the plot. Of course, there are a few works of fiction I read while drunk or sleep deprived. I might not remember those at all.

As for webnovels, I read in bulk. Even if I am a bit hazy on the plot, all I need to do is backtrack two chapters or read the first two chapters again. Most worlds are very similar. The featured characters and abilities fit in some mold. There is not as much to remember as one would think.
Of course, this makes any truly unique world, character, and magic system all the more memorable.

In a sense, is the world not a collection of stories? Can you remember your mates and their stories? Keep track of their changing girlfriends and jobs? Remember their childhood stories and drunk escapades? That time during the chaotic last years of the Soviet Union they went to Камчатка, met some "business men" and ate a bear's heart together? What about your own stories? I believe most people have hundreds of stories to tell.

[...]
you remember key details. thats what filters a good novel from a bad one. sometimes i read a novel only to realize on chapter 20 that i've read this before already.

Good point. This has happened to me as well.
As for why this happens, if the first few chapters are very common, they may seem familiar.
Nonetheless, one cannot be certain that they've read a story before just based on a sense of familiarity. Many novels are extremely similar. It may take me twenty chapters to be certain that I, indeed, know the novel.

 

[miyoga]

My "currently reading" on here list is usually around 40 novels. Of those, a handful are completed and I just need/want a massive chunk of time to sit down and read them (roughly 40-50 chapters), another handful are on long-term hiatus but with active authors and the remaining dozen or so are the ones that are getting regularly updated and read. For those that are being updated regularly, that update frequency can vary from a few times a week to roughly once a month. A lot of it just depends on the author.

My "planning to read" list is close to 300 and I check that regularly for stories that have been deleted or stubbed. If it's deleted, then that's simple enough to take care of; just one less story on my list. If it's stubbed, I may check around to see if it's been removed everywhere or if I still have some time to read it on RR or some other site. If it's been completely stubbed, then I simply move it to my "i might buy this when i have time/money" list which is just a sticky note that I check on periodically.

 

[K5Rakitan]

Or else you would be impregnated by the thousands of new ideas

Most of those ideas come from an entirely new brain that you have have no control over, and you're struggling to interpret and respond to every idea, which are communicated through cries. You assume that it mostly wants nipple and wants its diaper changed, but no. "Carry me" accounts for about 90% of its ideas in the first year.

 

[J_Chemist]

I almost said "must be nice, being so intelligent", but then I looked at one of my browsers and there's about 30 tabs of different manga that I'm reading, 10 different anime tabs, 5 light novels, and about 50 more mangas on my phone. Really fit the "I know him, He's me" joke with that one.


I think it's all about how you sort your brain. I like to think of it as one big bookshelf. Every book you pick up is a book you put on the shelf. When you move away from it, you put the book back on the shelf for later. When you come back to it, your brain naturally reminds itself of the story/plot and reminds you of what recently just happened so you can continue to read.

Some do it better than others. There are sometimes I have to reread a chapter or two to get back into it, especially if it's a long ass series